Chimp and Zee Pesky Pirates – a game review

I’m always on the look out for a new game, something to interest Monkey, something for us to play as a family. Monkey got a pirate ship for his birthday last year, it’s been well-played with over the year and he likes the idea of buried treasure. We often play treasure hunts around the house and garden. When Chimp and Zee Pesky Pirates came to my attention, I knew this would go down well with my little treasure hunter.

Chimp and Zee are a range of educational games and puzzles from Paul Lamond Games. Chimp and Zee Pesky Pirates is a game aimed at children between 3-5 years and can be played with 2-4 players.

A nearly 4 year old Monkey was eager to join the Chimp and Zee Pesky Pirates and discover some buried treasure!

The game comprises of a 4 piece jigsaw desert island play board, 4 treasure chests, 36 golden coins, 4 Pesky Pirate character play pieces, a Parrot play piece, a Jolly Roger play piece, 5 plastic bases for the play pieces to stand in, and a spinner.

Monkey set to work putting the desert island together.

The board and play pieces are made of thick board, so will withstand being played with by younger children.

We picked our treasure treasures – a good test of colour recognition skills as each chest has a different colour octopus guarding it. The treasure chests are made of thinner card than the other play pieces in this game. You would probably want to keep them away from very young children to ensure they didn’t get ripped.

You then put a piece of gold on each space around the board except those with footprints on, and place the remaining ‘pieces of eight’ in the centre of the desert island. You decide whether the Pirate or Jolly Roger will be trying to steal your treasure, and he guards the central stash.

Pick your Pesky Pirate companions, place them on the footprints nearest to you and you are ready to begin!

I have to say that the bases for the play pieces are great, they are made of thick plastic and the play pieces fit in really easily. There’s no risk of damage and the pieces stay in the bases really well.

Monkey, as the youngest, got to spin first.

The aim of the game is to collect as many gold coins as you can. If you spin a number then your Pesky Pirate moves around the board that many places and if you land on a coin, you claim it as your treasure and stow it safely away in your treasure chest!

,

The plastic gold coins have images of skull and crossbones on one side and a pirate ship on the other. Monkey thought this was great and we discussed bringing our pirate ship into play to whisk the treasure chests away at the end of the game. I love games that stimulate the imagination.

If you spin and land on the Parrot/Jolly Roger then you pick up the character from the centre of the desert island and place them in front of another players treasure chest. That player must put one of their coins into the central pile along with the Parrot/Jolly Roger.

If you spin and land on the gold coin then it’s your lucky day and you get to take a coin from the central stash for yourself. If the central coffers are bare, then you can take any coin from around the board. You also get another go!

There is so much to talk about with this game, the desert island has lots of detail, we loved the X marks the spot.

Monkey’s getting much better at turn taking now which is good with this game, he’s learning to accept that he might lose gold coins during game play. He can count out the spaces he needs to move and loved counting his coins, especially when he was beating me!

If you land on a space that’s already occupied by a Pesky Pirate you move forward to the next available space, he liked that idea too! When all of the coins from the end of the board have been collected, you play a final death spin-off! Whoever spins and lands on the gold coin, get the bounty. The winner is the player with the most coins.

This game can be played quite quickly, so its great for younger children, who might not have the greatest concentration span.

We both thoroughly enjoyed this game, Monkey loved playing in am imaginary world, and I liked the fact he was working on his counting skills and on turn taking, whilst having lots of fun.

We give Chimp and Zee Pesky Pirates a big thumbs up – it’s a great game, we’ve had loads of fun with it. Priced at around £10.00 I think this is good value for money.

disclaimer: we were sent this game for the purpose of review, our comments however remain our own, honest opinions.

Like this:

Related

About Over 40 and a Mum to One

I'm a Mum in my late 40′s with an 8 year old son. I had a busy life in Export Sales before my Monkey came along, but decided to become a stay at home Mum once he arrived. Now I enjoy writing my own family lifestyle and travel blog. sharing the adventures that we have as Monkey makes his journey through school. We have a cat called Brewster who makes appearances and I’m a mad Ferrari Formula 1 fan, so that expect to hear about as each season unfolds. We love reviewing days out, toys, games and books and would love the opportunity to look at anything that fits in with our family lifestyle. We are always out and about and offering an insight on the places we visit, with a passion for nature thrown in for good measure. If you like what you read please leave me a comment, I love to hear from people, and always try to reply. Enjoy the read.

Follow me on Bloglovin

Archives

Categories

I'm a member of

Affiliate Disclosure

Over 40 and a Mum to One is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to https://www.amazon.co.uk